Tucker Carlson toasts Abramoff

Former lobbyist Jack Abramoff was surrounded by friends and supporters Tuesday night at a book party hosted by Daily Caller founder Tucker Carlson in his Northwest Washington home. Abramoff’s “Capitol Punishment: The Hard Truth About Washington Corruption From America’s Most Notorious Lobbyist” hit bookstores last week.

Carlson opened the night with a personal tribute to what Abramoff had endured thanks to having spent three and a half years in a Maryland prison on charges of mail fraud, conspiracy, and tax evasion.

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“A number of people have asked me, ‘Why are you throwing a book party for Jack Abramoff? Are you a close personal friend of Jack’s?’ And I said, ‘I’ve actually known Jack for a long time. Haven’t been close friends with him for a long time.’ And I’m doing it for two reasons, both of which are totally heartfelt. And the first is that I think Jack is a genuinely nice person, whatever you have read or seen, and I think the book will give evidence of this. There is a decency that emanates from him, despite all of the accounts. I have experienced it personally and I think it’s real and I’m willing to vouch for that. So I’m impressed with anybody in Washington who exudes that level of kindness to other people.

“And the other reason, as a matter of personal philosophy, I don’t trust anyone who hasn’t been humiliated in public, and I say that as someone who’s been on ‘Dancing With the Stars.’ But more that that, I say that as someone who’s philosophically committed to the truth that, unless you fail, and I don’t mean in a minor, ‘I didn’t live up to my personal expectations today’ kind of way, but in a real way, where your neighbors avert their gaze, when you pull into your driveway at night, when people think you’re a loser. If you haven’t had that experience, then you really don’t know yourself very well and you don’t know your limits. You don’t know what you’re capable of and, more importantly, you don’t know what you’re not capable of. People who have been through that, and Jack has, understand something about the world that those who haven’t do not, and I respect that and I want to honor that, especially in a city that is given to quick and phony judgments of other people, whose underlining point is, ‘I’m better than him.’ I raise a middle finger to those people and I raise a glass to Jack Abramoff and I’m proud to do so.”